Chapter 50 He Xi’s Big Project
They have consciously integrated themselves with the people behind them, but at this moment someone told them that you are independent people. It has little to do with the people behind you. It can even be said that even if the person behind you commits a serious crime of treason, it has nothing to do with you.
This has a huge impact on their outlook on life.
At this moment, countless people are wondering what is written in the newly compiled Ming Dynasty Code?
Before this, no one cared about this.
At least these people don't care about the decrees issued by the court.
When He Xi first formulated the law, he had fully considered the interests of these people. Even the New Ming Law, if not all, was drafted to promote capitalism. There's a lot in it that's good for these people. It's just that they don't know it, or even feel it.
It's already good for them to have feelings and awareness at this moment.
As for the rest, you have to take your time.
He Xi said: "The imperial court upholds its generosity and does business southward through the canal. Naturally, it is no longer possible. But through Tianjin and Yingkou to the sea, as long as you pay taxes, you can come and go freely. There are no restrictions. Everything is business as usual."
When He Xi said this, the atmosphere below became obviously much more relaxed.
Suddenly someone said: "Sir, what about the money in the bank?"
He Xi said: "In places controlled by the imperial court, banks are all normal, but in places far away from the north and south, they are not working. It's hard to say what money is deposited in the south."
As a result, He Xi clearly felt the exhalation sounds below, and the people below breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course, there was something hidden in He Xi's words. First of all, He Xi has begun preparations for large-scale money printing. After all, the battle was won. It's easy to talk about anything, but if we can't win, He Xi has never thought of leaving the financial tool of banknotes to the south.
Secondly, everything seems normal. But in fact, the flow of huge amounts of banknotes between the north and the south has been interrupted.
They are already accustomed to bank deposits and withdrawals. They just want to load a boatload of banknotes so that Tianjin Customs can release them.
Of course, that is now. He Xi is still a little stuck on capital outflows. When large-scale money printing begins, He Xi hopes that they will run out more and let the entire Ming Dynasty bear the losses of money printing. He Xi will have a greater margin for financial activity.
However, He Xi knew that such policies alone would not be able to completely restore Beijing's economy.
There are many problems here.
First of all, in the past few years from the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu to the present, He Xi has not been idle, working hard to run Beijing. There are more and more industries in Beijing and Nanjing, and several trade routes have been opened up, mainly from Tianjin to sea. Oriental, Nanyang. Going up from the northeast of Liaoning, passing through the State of Yan, entering Mobei and heading towards the Western Regions. They also went from Beijing to Monan and all the way to the Western Regions. Of course, Beijing’s impact on the south is indispensable.
Beijing is the distribution center for supplies in the north, the largest livestock trading market, and the grain trading market. Together with the industrial centers, wool textile and cotton textile centers, especially the latter, Liaodong, together with Beijing and Tianjin, became the northern textile center.
Mainly made of wool blankets, cotton, tussah silk, and linen.
This is also the reason why the contradiction between the North and the South has become more and more intensified.
Northern cloth, of course, is mostly sold overseas. But as far as the known world of Ming Dynasty is concerned, the overseas market is still small. for Beijing. The largest market is the Ming Dynasty Southern Market, and the salt from Liaodong, Tianjin, and other places has seriously impacted the official salt from Lianghuai. The northern cloth also seriously impacted the small-scale peasant economy in the south.
Especially the economy of the Jiangnan region.
It should be noted that Jiangnan was heavily taxed, and the four governments in Jiangnan were responsible for more than one-tenth of the land tax of the Ming Dynasty. Although the land in Jiangnan was fertile, it was impossible to rely on land alone. Generally speaking, men farmed and women weaver, and the weaved cloth was sold in order to To support family expenses, the harvest in the fields, after paying taxes, is only food rations. It even evolved in the future that most of the entire Jiangnan planted mulberry trees and other cash crops, but instead bought grain from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to pay taxes.
So, what will happen when the market position of Jiangnan homespun cloth is shaken?
That is to say, now is the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang has many
The land is equalized and the land is cleared, and the burden on the people is not high, and the people can still bear it. But the gentry could not bear it any longer.
Without him, what the common people can afford is owned by farmers, and the land owned by the gentry is owned by tenants. That is to say, after the tenants bear the state taxes, they also have to bear the land rent from the landlords, and then they have to face the situation of worthless cloth.
In addition, there were already many tenant farmers who, seeing that they could no longer survive locally, went overseas, including to Nanjing, and other large places to make a living.
After all, although what Huang Zicheng did in Shaofu was not as vigorous as in the north, it was not that he did nothing.
This pressure was transferred to politics, forcing the scholar-bureaucrats to reach a consensus that they should use violent means to deal with Zhu Xiongying. This is another reason why Zhu Yuanzhang did not let Zhu Xiongying be in Nanjing. Otherwise, Zhu Yuanzhang is likely to end up fighting each other.
And Zhu Xiongying is clearly the eldest son. Zhu Xiongying also has an edict to supervise the country, but Zhu Yunwen has nothing, and there are still many suspicions. However, none of the Ming Dynasty scholars and officials spoke out, which actually represents some tendencies.
The South is already in a hurry.
In other words, as far as the southern scholar-officials are concerned, they are eager to cut off all trade with the north at once. But He Xi didn't think about how, as a party with an advantage in trade, it could give up its advantageous weapons.
Not only should it be used, but it should be used to its fullest extent.
But He Xi also knew that the impact of the parallelism of the north and the south was too great. It is almost impossible for He Xi to return to before the war. Even the most important overseas market of the Ming Dynasty, the Nanyang market, was likely to be lost during the maritime war.
In this case, He Xi had to take action.
He Xi said: "I am here today, and there is one more thing to say. The railway from Beijing to Yingkou needs to be built, and it will be subject to bidding as before. Today, I will ask Assistant Professor Zhang to explain to you, what is this railway?"
Assistant Professor Zhang is naturally Zhang Zongde.
The teaching assistant is an official position, and the seventh-rank official of the Imperial College is different from the teaching assistants in later generations.
Regarding the railway, He Xi had already made preparations and had even completed the measurements. From Beijing to Yingkou, it is about 1,100 miles, with one stop every 30 miles, and about 30 stops. Because there are inns along the way, most stations do not need to be built.
Steam engines are also powerful enough to pull trains on railways.
After all, rails are already used in many places in the northern iron ore and coal mines.
This is also something that can't be helped.
Because as far as the whole north is concerned, human beings are still scarce. Coal and iron mines are all heavy physical work, which requires young and strong labor force. If we don't find a way to innovate, the iron ore and coal mines will use hundreds of thousands of strong people. What's the matter? Where are the people assigned to other departments?
As the most important invention among them, the track has the most applications. This experimental line between Zunhua and Beijing has been running for a long time, and all the problems have been figured out. Large-scale construction is possible.
Because the railway capacity of this era was not high, the railways were also very light, and the laying speed was very fast. He Xi estimates that the entire railway. If both sides are laid at the same time, it will take about half a year to a year to complete.
The railway from Beijing to Yingkou is just the beginning.
From Beijing to Shenyang, from Shenyang to Korea. The railway from Beijing south to Jinan, from Beijing along the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain to the north of the Yellow River, are all in He Xi's plan, it's just a matter of who goes first and who comes last.
There are several reasons for building railways on a large scale.
First, maintain Beijing's industrial scale, or even expand Beijing's industrial scale for military use.
The second is the military application of railways.
In ancient wars, the people who needed the most number of people were not the soldiers, but the people behind to transport the baggage. Many wars involve no more than a hundred thousand soldiers, but more than a million people are mobilized for transshipment. The number of people within Beijing's jurisdiction is too small.
Even if there is extreme conscription, there won't be many people.
At most a million people.
Millions of people seemed like a lot, but on the battlefield in the future, He Xi felt that it might not be enough. There are various reasons for this. The biggest reason, He Xi thinks, is the war method.
The change in style is the arrival of the firearms age. Let the war be different from before.
